


Noise

by checkerbee



Series: 31 Days of Apex (Drabbles) [6]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: 31 Days of Apex (Apex Legends), F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25144177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/checkerbee/pseuds/checkerbee
Summary: Day 6 of 31 Days of Apex....Ever since she could remember, she had had a sensitivity to sound.
Relationships: Wattson | Natalie Paquette/Wraith | Renee Blasey
Series: 31 Days of Apex (Drabbles) [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812307
Comments: 6
Kudos: 66





	Noise

Ever since she could remember, she had had a sensitivity to sound. As a child, voices and sudden noises overwhelmed her, made her grasp for silence and softness, something to muffle the overstimulation that the world could bring. When she was too young to explain it, she cried, stifled her tears into the plush side of the nessie that her mother had left her, but as she grew older she learned ways to work around it. 

The hum of electricity offered comfort, a steady white noise that allowed her mind to focus and she latched onto it like a lifeline, a bit of solace until one day her Papa presents her with a pair of headphones that drown out some of the noise. They aren't a constant accessory, but instead a security blanket that she uses when her mind focuses too sharply on the noises around her, when she isn't able to let it all blend into the background.

When she enters the games, she expects it to be overwhelming and in the beginning it is, despite the precautions she takes with the ear muffs she builds into her suit. She spends the first few nights after each day in the arena working in a lab alone, making adjustments to her pylons that aren't really needed if only to hear the undercurrent of energy hum through the air. Wraith visits her sometimes, checks to make sure that she's okay and listens when she requests that the other Legend keep her voice quiet. 

"I understand," She says, murmurs when Natalie turns back to her work and her fingers pause, hover above her tools for a moment. Renee doesn't speak for the remainder of her visits, doesn't intrude on the protective white noise of her lab, but she does pull her aside after one of the games, hand on her wrist, and Natalie's heart beats in her chest, too loud. Too fast. 

"Can I show you something?" Renee asks, smiles when Nat nods. She releases her though, doesn't pull her along and gives her a chance to continue on to her labs, to return to her well-maintained routine. But when a portal is opened before her, she steps through, shivers at the wash of bone-chilling cold that runs through her, like stepping into a crisp winter night. 

"It's not much, but it's quiet." Renee says, voices echoing her words and Nat turns in a slow circle, watches the shades of other dimensions blend in and out of the cool blue abyss around her. True to her word, it is quiet here, in the void between dimensions. Almost eerily so, but it's also-

"Perfect," Nat tells her, voice full of soft wonder and Renee blinks, looks away from the pure joy on the young scientist's face. "C'est beau, thank you." 

They stay for what feels like hours, sit and talk quietly in the endless expanse of shifting blue until Wraith says that they need to go back. 

"I can take you back whenever you need a bit of quiet, but staying too long can take its toll." Renee says when she notices the bereft look on her face. 

"I used to spend days there," She adds, something fragile in her tone. "Back when I couldn't manage the others as well as I can now. It becomes too comfortable if you let it, disconnects you in a way that once you return to reality, it stops feeling like where you should be." 

"But it's there if you need it." She pauses, thinks over her words for a moment. 

"You'll be there too." Nat finishes for her, feels something like a current run through her, soft and tingling all the way to the tips of her fingers. 

"Yeah, I'll be there too." 

**Author's Note:**

> More Darksparks? Oh goodness.


End file.
